Observers: A study of the beings known as Children
by Shinagami
Summary: Character Study, observation of what the Children would do in a given situation
1. A Boy and his room

Observers: A study of the beings known as Children

Chapter One: A Boy and His Room

By Shinagami

17:38:20 Subject One (Third Child) alone in room.

It would seem from simply observing this specimen for the past seventeen hours that he is perfectly capable of handling vast amounts of time alone. I can see no instability of his emotions or adding unknown variables easily changes his general well being, however, that. Thus, cause and effect.

***

Shinji never really knew he was being abducted, as he was still sound asleep at such an early time in the morning. When he woke in the new surroundings his first thought was that he was somewhere unfamiliar, and that Nerv was probably behind it. So he sat for hours on end, taking the advantage of the peace and quiet to immerse himself in deep in thought. He stumbled upon a quite intriguing thought as he sat propped against the wall of his unfurnished cell.

-Nothing is ever my fault. - He pushed himself into a more upright position at this revelation. -I merely am acting on what others have done before me, making me do what I do. Father manipulates me and everyone at Nerv; he gives me such a small area to work with when considering options that he has a scenario planned out for every last possible occurrence! - He couldn't help but to smirk at what he had just figured out. His father had carefully done things ahead of time so that he would know _exactly_ how each person of Nerv would react, and ultimately get him to where he wanted to be. The Third Child's head snapped up at the sound of a small clinking. There, in the very center of the room, a ballpoint pen had fallen and landed.

"Huh?" Shinji took a second to peek up at the ceiling, by chance that there may be an exit, but it was still the perfect light blue plane it had always been. Carefully the boy stood and walked over to the pen. He'd heard of people stuffing explosives into all sorts of odd things, and was in no hurry to have his hand blown off. Sifting through his possible options, from just picking the pen up, to nudging it with his foot, Shinji thought of what to do. Could this be one of those pre-planned things? The boy wasn't going to give his father the satisfaction of predicting the outcome if it was. That said the young Ikari fished a coin from his pocket and, retreating to the far end of the room, tossed it at the pen, where it hit and scooted the writing utensil to the far corner.

"Uh....That's good, I guess." It didn't blow up, which was at least a good premonition. Deciding to further investigate the pen Shinji Ikari walked to the opposing corner of his cell and picked it up. There were lettering on the side, an alphabet he recognized as English.

BIC

It said. With a shrug Shinji popped the cap off and shook it. Nothing. Then, with an almost involuntary twitch of his eye he noticed he had six planes of light blue walls.... paper....and a lovely new pen.

***

17:45:35 Third Child investigates unknown variable: begins to experiment.

From just watching the events unfold I know that the Third Child is a very unique, very complicated human being. He has the cautious curiosity that is seen in most genius' that invented the modern day conveniences. This will prove to be a most interesting seventy-two hours. 

***

Without really thinking about it Shinji began drawing. Let it be known that he wasn't the best artist around, but he made some fairly decent sketches of Tokyo-3 and even the oceans he saw while on the _Over the Rainbow_. As his pen wandered so did his mind, taking him to the subconscious places only peaceful distractions can guide oneself. He began thinking of his life thus far, with little inhibitions such as bias or negativity. Just plain objective comparison of how he wanted life, and how life really was. Eventually the list became so long that the younger Ikari had to temporarily abandon his slightly skewed Mona Lisa to write it down. Once this task was completed Shinji was sure that he could make his dream become reality, all he had to do was employ the same tactics his father had, and he got whatever he wished for.

"But why does he wish for me to be in pain?" This was the main question Shinji wished he had the gall to just ask his father. He mulled over it for a while, until finally growling and scribbling it down. After he looked at the hastily written kanji for a good while he sighed in defeat.

"I could never answer that one on my own." He said, slumping to the floor. From his father his thoughts drifted to the blue-haired enigma that was known as Ayanami Rei. She had once said that she had no life, no purpose outside of Eva. He wanted to explain to her that her mere existence and the fact that she was around him to make him feel that little bit of hope, that small ounce of wonderment that kept him sane sometimes was a good enough reason to live. Yet she was adamant that she was useless outside of piloting her Eva. Her Eva: Unit 00, the prototype. It had one giant eye that seemed to appraise its enemies and give a deep thoughtful look at the same time. The first time he'd gone into combat with it was one of the scariest days of his life, not knowing if he had the strength to defeat the angel, or even knowing if Ayanami was still alive after that beam had hit her Eva dead on. 

Blinking in surprise Shinji realized that he had a five foot tall Evangelion drawn on the floor, albeit with disproportional arms and a head just a tad too small, but it was there. The sight of that insectoid creature that was the prototype Evangelion somehow reminded Shinji of the grin Rei had given the boy at his request. Shinji had that one moment locked in his memory, never to forget it. A few minutes later the same image, down to the stray hairs on her head, was recreated next to the Eva. Eva....another one of his concerns was obsessed about Eva, this time it was a whole different personality, a whole new reason to clasp onto that nuisance that Eva was. Asuka Langley Sohryu; Second Children. She was one of the few people that Shinji could relate with, even if he or she didn't know it. Her red Evangelion matched her fiery spirit perfectly, he concluded. The more he thought about it the more he realized that Asuka was someone he'd like to get to know better, someone he would like to talk to and share his feelings with. With a few strokes of his pen the four-eyed beast came alive next to the calm calculating Unit 00. From his memories Shinji pulled his fondest image of Asuka, when she was smiling, carefree and uninhibited. It too took life next to Eva Unit 02's face. 

In reality all that was left was for him to draw Unit 01 and a self image of himself, but Shinji didn't feel like bringing _that_ monster to life inside his little world. All his Eva had brought him was pain, mystery, and a yearning to prove himself. He felt he had to prove himself to his father when he first agree to pilot the thing. Of course, saving the injured girl's life was the deciding factor, he told himself, but it was always there, that burning desire to show his father that he was worth something, not just a child to be abandoned. He had climbed into the beast and fought another monster building size for what? To save a few building called Tokyo-3, for which he'd been in for three hours at best? No, it was more than that. It was Shinji Ikari showing Gendo Ikari that his son could do whatever he told him to. And that was exactly what Gendo wanted. Shinji let his need for acceptance blind him to what his father was doing. In a moment of hastiness, Shinji ripped the top off the pen and drew the grinning demon face of the robot called Unit 01, and next to it the dark faced visage of the cold machine called Commander Gendo Ikari.

***

18:01:32 Third Child has created many images along the walls and floor associating himself with the organization Nerv and the Artificial Human Fighting Android Evangelion. 

I can see just from the pictures the young Children had drawn that there are many unresolved issues he has yet to take care of, such as his feeling toward piloting his robot, his co-workers, and his own father, as proven by the drawing of each robot and its pilot, save for his own. In place of his own self there is a picture of his father, obviously a testament to him not coming to terms with him.

***

With his moment of introspective done, Shinji sat back and examined his world. He considered it his world because, after all, he did create most of it from nothing but ink. And since it was his world to govern that meant he would have to be the responsible leader and give it a name. 'Retrospectville' He decided. With a small sigh he took up his pen and, with the last remaining ink, drew a big banner with his world's name written neatly in the center of it. As he worked some small part of his brain noted he must be delirious with either loneliness or hunger; and was quickly silenced by the part wishing for quiet so it could draw the banner. Just to be sure he knew his denizens would recognize him, he needed a crown. With no coronet conveniently around he pulled the waist of his shorts down and with a few shifts and hopping around, pulled of his underwear. Snapping the elastic experimentally he shrugged and drew the boxers over his head in a rather hasty crown. Now, he could sleep.

Continued...


	2. What woes will the unknown variables bri...

Observers: A study of the beings known as Children

Chapter Two: What woes will unknown variables bring?

***

23:52:02 Subject stirs approximately every thirty three minutes. Audible discomfort is recorded.

Even though it is early in the morning the Children cries out in his sleep. It is not a loud cry, but it seems that he is suffering from night terrors. Of what nightmares he is having only he can discern, but I am willing to assume that it has something to do with his involvement with Nerv and Evangelion.

***

Shinji sat bolt upright, a light sheen of sweat covering his forehead. It had happened again, the dream had come again. It wasn't his normal anguished nightmares of his battles inside Eva, but a more mysterious hazy dream world were he identified scents and aromas of people and things long past.

It started with him in a field of nothing, of sheer oblivion, a darkness so complete and absolute that one would have to close his eyes just to make sure if they were in fact open. Shinji knew this place well, it had been the place he resided while inside his Eva as the life support died, while he was stuck inside the Sea of Dirac. And then he was surrounded, impaled, and assaulted with color. The color streaked past him as if he was flying fast as a super sonic aircraft. Then the scents came. Soft gentle smells of warmth, sweet scents of summer, even odd cool rustic aromas he could not place. It was here that all pleasantness ended. The tunnel of color ending as quick as it had come, and Shinji was face to face with the evil, grinning mask of Unit 01, and it spoke to him.

"What do you want Shinji?" It asked, the voice a metallic mockery of a human female's. "What do you want?"

Hard as he tried, Shinji could not utter a single word in the presence of the beast.

"Do you want...peace? Do you wish for solitude? For justice?"

Yes. Yes, Shinji wanted all these things. He wanted peace at mind to know that the world's fate did not rest on him and his two friends. He wanted the solitude of heart that would lend him strength in times of need. He wanted justice for all that needed it.

"Do you want...love? Do you yearn for acceptance?" It laughed, a deep throated guttural, phlegm coated cackle. "Then you are foolish. You can never have these things, Shinji Ikari."

Shinji wanted for all he was worth to be able to ask why. To ask why life had weeded him out and chosen him to be the martyr. 

With a rearing motion the jackal mask snapped its jaws at Shinji, crunching off his lower torso as the Third hung suspended, screaming as his abdomen was stripped away, and blood, yellow blood, streamed from the wound. A snapping sound followed the Eva chewing and swallowing his parts and the unholy beast came back up and consumed the rest of him.

That is were Shinji would wake up, sweating and scared beyond belief. No normal person had that kind of dream, Shinji had decided. He looked around his still bright cell; at the drawings scribbled over it, all except the ceiling. 

***

32:46:56 Subject is staring at the opposing wall. Not much activity.

It would seem that the Third Child is deep in thought. He seemed disoriented after he awoke from his nightmare and did not fall back asleep. Perhaps it is time to introduce another unknown element.

***

Shinji was getting hungry. It had been roughly forty or so hours since he last ate, that being diner from the night before last. So he sat, preserving every bit of energy he had, but for what reason he wasn't sure. Nothing had happened past a pen dropping in from nowhere. Though his vision was not focused, Shinji was inattentively watched the wall opposite from him. It took him a few seconds to realize that there was a black spot dead center on the drawing of his apartment building that he couldn't remember putting there. He focused his eyes on it, and could have sworn it got bigger. Perplexed he crawled to it on his knees, bringing his face close to the perfectly round black dot. It was the oddest thing Shinji had seen since coming into this place. He tried to scratch it off, but to no effect. It didn't seem to be ink, or even paint. Just a part of the wall.

"Shinji?" The said Child froze. He _did_ hear a voice call his name didn't he? Slowly he turned, his mouth gaping open all the while. There, in her school uniform, was Asuka. Just standing there. No door to be found, just standing there looking at Shinji like he was wearing his underwear on his head. A split second later he pulled the garment off his head as inconspicuously and quickly as possible.

"A-Asuka? What are you- what are you d-doing here?" He stuttered his words, not used to having girls pop up when he was locked in a small place and with certain unmentionables decorating his head..

"What are you, stupid? I'm....." She hesitated. "What _am_ I doing here?" She looked around. "And where is here?" Shinji shrugged, not knowing himself.

"I just woke up and I was here..." He noticed her peering at all of his little masterpieces. "I found a pen and got bored so...uh..."

"Is this supposed to be me?" She was standing over the Unit 02 with the picture Shinji had drawn of her and looking at it disdainfully.

"Well, yeah...kinda." He stood behind her. "I think the Eva looks okay...."

She huffed a little over the images and turned to face him. "So you just woke up and you were here."

"Yes."

"And you have no idea how you got here?"

"No."

"And you had your underwear on your head, why?"

"Um..."

She sighed and sat against the wall. "Well.." She turned towards Shinji, who was still standing.

"Well what?"

"Well...nothing. Forget it." Shinji shrugged and sat across from here, twiddling with the empty pen.

***

33:20:12 Subjects are partaking in conversation.

Both Children seem to have problems communicating as openly as they wish to. This is interesting because the Third illustrated his concern for the Second Child. More on this later.

***

"What's there to eat here?" The question made Shinji's stomach ache with sympathy. He'd been wondering this himself and thus far had come up with no conclusions.

"I don't know." He gave a small shrug and tried to cover the noise his food digestion muscle was making. 

"You think this has something to do with Nerv?" He could tell Asuka was getting antsy, shifting around and playing with the hem of her dress. "I mean, they would have told us they had an experiment scheduled."

"Maybe they didn't want us to know?" Asuka gave him a hard stare as she thought that one over. Her stare turned into an unfocused gaze as her stomach let loose a mighty verbal complaint about the lack of food that it had.

"There has to be _something_ around here." She began searching the part of the room were that wall met floor. Her hunt took her from one side of the room to right next to Shinji.

"Find anything?" Shinji asked once Asuka had stopped and seemed to be looking closely at something.

"Yeah, a big five star meal in this crack here." The sarcasm made Shinji retreat back to his wall and cross his arms. The wall was different, though. There was a steaming bowl of something right where he was previously sitting. Upon closer inspection the bowl was filled with ramen noodles.

"Hey! Hey Asuka!" Shinji was nearly delirious as he carefully picked the meal up.

"You don't have to yell, stupid- is that food?" She bolted across the room and sniffed the contents of the bowl suspiciously.

"Yeah, some noodles." In a moment the bowl was gone and Asuka was staring with eye into the food.

"Could poisoned, or have truth serum, or an aphrodisiac..." She handed the bowl back to the Third.

"A what? Aphrodisiac?" Shinji looked into the meal himself. "Why would they do that?"

Asuka sat back down. "I don't know. I just don't trust it. You know there are people out there who want us dead. Section Two is enough reason to believe that."

"Well, yeah. But if they wanted us dead wouldn't they have just shot us?" He smelled the delicious odor of the cooked ramen.

"People are weird Shinji. I'll pass, you can go ahead and eat it if you want to. I'm not going to poison myself."

"Whatever you say, Asuka." And Shinji picked a single noodle from the bowl with his fingers and slurped it down. Not feeling immediately like he was ill, or like he wanted to have endless rounds of sex, Shinji took some more into his fingers and lowered them into his mouth.

Asuka was watching him the whole time, of course, and hugged her knees to her chest as her internal organs squeezed the life out of emptiness. From the corner of his eye Shinji saw the grimace cross Asuka's face and he stopped slurping down the noodle he had just put into his mouth.

"Are you sure?" He looked at the bowl, still half full. "There's still plenty left."

"What part of poisoning didn't you understand? I'm not going to willingly subject myself to being poisoned so some interrogators will have an easier job."

"Don't be paranoid, Asuka. Just have some. You'll feel better."

"I said no. Now leave me alone." She turned from him and frowned.

A few moments later she heard a muffled gurgle and the a falling body make a thump on the floor.

"Shinji? Shinji?!"

***

35:52:59 Subject has fallen unconscious.

What is so interesting about these two is how one reacts when another one is either in trouble or unwilling to do something. One will try and work out a plan and have an organized course of action, and the other will make a lot of verbal noise and use fear to get wanted results. Very interesting indeed.

***

"Shinji!?" Asuka was kneeling over him now, screaming for him to open his eyes. She felt that he had a pulse, and was still alive - thank God - but he seemed out of it completely. She tried to slap him awake, but it proved to be of no use.

"You yell a lot." She sat straight up, trying to hide the fact that she was on the verge of tears.

"What the hell?!" The Second watched as Shinji pushed himself to a sitting position and smiled. "You aren't poisoned?"

Shinji's smile grew a bit. "No, but-"

"You tricked me! Little brat!"

"But I was just-"

"Dumkoph!"

"I only wanted to show-"

"Anta Baka!"

"The ramen wasn't poisoned-"

"You scared me!"

Shinji stopped trying explain his little charade. "I'm sorry, Asuka. I didn't mean to... I just wanted to show that you should eat something."

She was sitting with her back to him, furiously trying to blink back the tears threatening to overwhelm her.

"So you faked getting poisoned. How responsible."

Shinji picked up the bowl from where he set it and crawled to face her. "Come on, just eat a little. It can't hurt you just to eat a little." Asuka considered his proposition and reluctantly took the bowl from his outstretched hand.

"Just a little." He nodded and she grabbed a finger full of noodles. With a hard stare at the Third Child she cautiously lowered the warm food into her mouth. The second they hit her stomach it craved more, and more she gave it, emptying the rest of the bowl's contents.

"There, better?"

She set the bowl on the ground. "Yeah, I guess. But remember, you ate some first, so you die first." Shinji offered a little shrug. "Or if its an aphrodisiac you get horny first." The boy turned red and stuttered a response.

"I won't...I mean, I'll...-" And Asuka began to giggle.

Continued...


	3. Two's a party, three's a crowd

Observers: A study of the beings known as Children

Chapter Three: Two's a party, three's a crowd

***

43:09:12 Unknown variable 2B introduced

The sheer contrast of The Second and Third Children is so dynamic one would naturally assume that they would destroy each other if put into this situation. Oddly enough, however, it seems that they follow the pattern set by old romance novels about opposites attracting. I am not suggesting anything even remotely romantic between these two subjects, but they play very well off each other, which makes watching them all the more entertaining.

***

Sleep didn't seem very restful for Shinji. Without his SDAT sleep just seemed like being unconscious; a music-less delve into darkness. That's why he stirred at roughly 2:30 AM in the morning, slowly opening one eye and shifting to a sitting position, wincing as several joints made loud popping noises. A quick scan of his and Asuka's room showed nothing peculiar, the north (as far as he could discern) wall still had the landscapes drawn on it, the east wall had the portraits of the Evas and Children, he was leaning against the south wall, and there on the west wall was Ayanami.

"Ayanami?!" He choked out, getting over the initial shock of seeing the First Child just sitting, watching him and Asuka sleep. "Wha-....How did you get here?"

"I am not sure." She turned and looked at their cell, noting the drawings scrawled over its surfaces.

Shinji nodded, neither he nor Asuka knew how they came to be in the room in which they were trapped, or how they would get out.

Their attention was drawn to Asuka, yawning expansively and rolling her head around her neck, stretching all the tight muscles back into shape.

"Hey Shinji, any more food show- You!" Surprise flared in the redhead's eyes and pulled her knees to her chest. "The hell are you doing here?!"

"I do not know."

Asuka opened her mouth to say something but Shinji cut her off, opting to stamp out the flames before they grew into a blaze.

"Asuka, she's probably here for the same reasons we are. Like you said, its just some test Nerv is giving us." 

It seemed that way, too much of a coincidence for all three Children to appear in a tiny cell where food and other objects randomly appeared.

"Of course I was right," She stole a threatening glare Rei's way. "The sooner you all realize that we'll all be fine." Shinji rolled his eyes and sat. Rei merely looked at Asuka, head tilted.

"As you wish."

***

46:32:22 Subjects 1A and 2A converse. Subject 2B remains along the south wall.

As much as the Second and Third Children had differences, they still managed to co-exist, and even to become closer. This, however, holds no same consistency with the First and Second. Further observation and investigation will be necessary to ascertain the reasons behind what seems to be a deep rooted hate of the First.

***

"I still think Kaji likes Misato." Shinji sighed as Asuka shook her head in denial. 

"You couldn't be more wrong, Kaji has no interest whatsoever with that woman." And it had been like that for the better part of an hour. The topic of Misato had been brought up by Asuka when she had gotten bored by the silence and decided to start a conversation with Shinji. He had, in turn, said that he didn't know if Kaji would like the fact that Misato is a pig. Asuka had questioned why Kaji would care, to which Shinji offhandedly replied because he liked her; and the 'yes he does' 'no he doesn't' had begun.

"I know my Kaji, he happens to prefer mature women with a clear head and a good personality." Anyone inside Asuka's head would have heard her slip in , 'With red hair and blue eyes.'

"I don't know, you can tell whenever Misato talks about him being like he was in college she's always smiling." Shinji had watched the exchange a few times between Misato and Dr. Akagi, or Misato and one of the techs on the bridge.

"Who cares if Misato likes Kaji, I'm sure she's well aware that their relationship is purely platonic."

"Captain Katsuragi and Mister Kaji are currently in a relationship."

Both Children turned to look at Rei, sitting on her south wall and looking at them. 

"Wondergirl, I didn't ask your opinion. Now go back to Wonderland and play with the Cat in the Hat."

"Uh...wasn't it the Chester Cat?" Shinji seemed to recall watching the animated feature known as Alice in Wonderland, but wasn't quite sure it was the same thing Asuka had insulted Rei with.

"It is fact. Captain Katsuragi and Mister Kaji were at the Indiquees sur l'emballage* five days ago. I am certain that this was a 'date'."

Asuka's face swelled up for a moment, then turned a bright, angry red. "You don't know what you're talking about! Do you really believe that Kaji would stoop so low as go on a date with Misato?!"

"I do not know."

The Second stood violently and jabbed a finger at the sitting First. "Don't give me any of your monotone 'I do not know' shit! Can't you just be normal?!"

"Am I not normal?" Rei asked the question one might take as challenging.

Asuka's face betrayed her rage. "Of course you're not! You're a stupid lifeless doll that can't do anything by herself and has to have everything explained to her three times before she understands it! All you are is just the body of someone; you have no life! No nothing!" With a huff Asuka got her breathing under control and slid down her wall and sat, glaring at the girl across from her.

"Asuka, Ayanami.....look, its obvious we're going to be here a while...so maybe we should try not to fight-"

"Shut up Shinji! Always trying to please everybody!. Just sit down and quit being a whiney little baby."

Shinji did just that, as if suddenly deflated he slowly sat down in the corner of the east and south walls, an equal distance from both girls.

***

57:56:19 Subjects finish supplied meal and sit silently.

I am still a bit shocked at the outright anger and defiance displayed by the Second and First Children. If things get too violent I may have to remove her. The Third seems neutral concerning any favoritism, which leads me to believe he himself is in conflict with his feelings.

***

"There, that's _your_ side and this is mine. Stay over _there_." Asuka dropped the pen, exhausted of its last drop of ink. She'd drawn a line down the center of the room, and declared the side with the north wall hers. Rei replied by nodding and remaining on her side.

Shinji, lost in the waves of hate emanating from the north side of the room and the chill of cold unconcern radiating from the south, tried not to stare at either of them.

_Where's my side?_ He thought sadly. He hadn't moved from his corner in quite a few hours, and standing seemed like heaven. He looked around the ceiling of the cell with some small, vain hope that an exit would present itself. Eventually his gaze rolled over to Rei's side of the room, and he slowly approached her.

"Hey, Ayanami?" She turned her attention from some invisible place past the east wall to him.

"Yes?"

Shinji squatted down next to her. "Mind if I sit here?"

"Why would I not mind?" Her question surprised him, he could come up with many million reasons why she wouldn't want him near her, but chose to keep those hidden away inside his mind.

"I don't know..."

"You may sit here." The look she gave him suggested that she might be slightly amused at his awkwardness, and Shinji gave a weak, nervous smile and sat next to her.

From the opposite corner of the room the sleeping Asuka jumped. Looking around groggily, she noted was still in a small cell with Shinji and Rei and directly across from her the said Third was sitting next to the First.

_I see how it is. I'm asleep for two seconds and he takes the opportunity to go snuggle with the little tramp._

If Asuka had known the nature of his visitation to the First, then maybe she'd be a little more content with Shinji Ikari.

Continued...


	4. Omake Force Alpha

'Lo, the author here. Or here, which ever you feel more comfortable with. As most of you noticed there were no author's notes in the first three chapters, which is how I planned it. Okay, I uploaded a version of it without the notes, but the end effect is the same. My pre-reader Weltall Elite had mentioned some time ago that while in the cell, the Children had no way of excreting. You know, going potty, taking a dump, running to the jon...ect. Well, he is right; there really IS no way, unless I wanted them to go into a hole in the middle of the cell, which would completely alter the feel of the room that I wanted to give it and horribly alter the character interactions. Needless to say I couldn't let this happen, so I just left it out, not mentioning it. (Kind of hoping that most would not notice either =D) Well, as in all fun things of writing and such I have to make fun of myself here, or else you'd all think I was some elitist author with no faults whatsoever. In any case, I also really like to make fun of stuff, and since I just made a very 'D'oh!' like mistake, I guess I'm up. He he.

Observers: A study of the beings known as Children

Omake Force Alpha

By Shinagami

There was a 'hmmm'. A second later it was followed by a rather raucous 'thump'. A second passed. Hmmm. Thump. Hmmm. Thump. Dammit!

As usual per time of night Shin was at a terminal in his dark musty concrete walled room in the sub-basement of the Darkscribes compound he happened to like very much. He rubbed his chin, noting the rough layer of stubble that had grown there in the past five days. 

"Hmmm." He looked asked his terminal what it was busy doing. It did not answer because was too busy being busy showing him what he'd previously typed which was something to the effect of a lame study of character profiles. Not that Shin thought it was lame, of course. "Thump." His face landed into the keyboard, the obvious perpetrator of the noise.

It was about then that Weltall showed up. Just checking in, you know?

"Yo, how's it going?" He leaned back slightly as a small Kenshin figure flew at him. "Still haven't figured it out, I guess."

"Bah.....If you ask me Shinji can hold it." Shin reached for his Pibb, only to find it empty and in turn, flung it across the room.

"You'll need to tie that end up," Weltall said, looking over Shin's shoulder at what he was furiously deleting. "or your readers will wonder." This evoked another 'Bah!' from the God of Death.

"And what if I don't?" He leaned back from his computer and crossed his arms.

Weltall grinned. "Or else the Yakuza boogie man will get you." Shin sighed...not THAT again. It wasn't that Shinagami didn't believe in the Fanfic Yakuza boogie man, but he was well defended against such an attack. Anti-incendiary devices hung from the otherwise bare ceiling and a firemen's axe leaned in the corner next to the decidedly wicked scythe. 

"Feh, I'm sure they understand that the nature of this fic was to capture the characters personalities for study. Not some ultra-realistic story telling fic." He humphed and moved across the room to shuffle through his dresser. "And!" He shuffled some more.

"And?"

More shuffling. "And I found this!" He held up the item to the bare 60 watt bulb of the room and grinned.

"Its 35 millimeter film ." The grin widened. "It says 'Footage'."

The grin on Shin's face became too much, something was going to split open soon. "Yes! Of actual observation video from the security cameral from each of the Children's rooms!"

Weltall shook his head, obvious he was right about to kill the mood of excitement emulating from Shin.

"You have a VCR, Shin." The mood was abruptly killed. Shin looked from the gleaming footage in his hands to Weltall, eye twitching. 

"I....I knew that."

"No you didn't."

The film dropped from Shin's hand to the concrete floor, clattering all the way. "I really ought to kill you."

Weltall grinned. "I know." He moved to the shelves of plastic mecha models. "LD has a 35 millimeter projector in his chambers, you could always ask to use his."

Shin crossed his arms. "Phooey." He made a few quick adjustments to his typing and saved it. "Guess I have to get dressed now, huh?" As per the usual Shin was working in his favorite pair of black sweatpants and dark blue t-shirt. Weltall nodded.

"Yeah, you spilt pizza all over that." And so he did. What did you expect? "And some coke, what looks like cheese, I think that's Cheetoh dust....and what is that?" He nodded towards the dominating stain on Shin's shirt, black and oily.

"Oh, that's where I dropped the high-grade starfighter oil." Weltall shook his head again and stepped outside.

"What? Gotta keep those things maintained or they'll stall...."

Somewhere between then and now Shin's large oak medieval styled door swung open and he stumbled out, kicking frantically at something black wrapped around his leg. 

"Back! Back fiend!" His scythe arced around and sliced at the undulating black mass.

From across the hall Weltall watched in mixed bemusement and pity. "Aren't those your sweatpants?"

"That's why they're so dangerous! Ack! Not the neck! Zounds!" With the flailing going on and the scythe grasped in one of those flailing hands the nylon material was eventually sliced through and dropped to the floor. And he liked those pants too.

The long walk through the corridors of Darkscribes was, as previously stated, long. Along the way Weltall noticed that Shin was no longer at his side, but instead knocking on another one of the doors; this one labeled Lord Random1377.

"Random! I know you're there!" The knocking became louder and more insistent. Several seconds later the door flew open and a disheveled looking Random peered out.

"Any reason you're banging on my door, or is this going to be a nightly occurrence?" He grinned.

Shin bit back a witty comment, but just a little late, so Random got: 'Now that you mention it-' And the rest Shin had bitten off.

"In any case, I need my coat back."

"Coat?" Weltall asked, staying far away enough from Shin and Random so that anything coming from inside the author's room or Shin's stomach would be out of range.

"Yeah, can't go to LD's place without my trenchcoat. I needed one of the buttons sewn back on so I asked Random for a bit of help." At that moment Random was searching through the piles of half finished fics that towered dangerously above him and could not make a comment. So they waited. 12.4 seconds later Random reappeared with the sought after garment, thimble on and cutting the last bit of thread from the new button with his teeth. 

"There, good as new. And you'll pre-read my new fic, right? The Mana/Toji lemon?" 

Shin nodded, though slightly pallid and with eyes slightly glazed over. And they left. Well, at least Shin _thought_ they left. In reality Random shut the door, leaving Weltall and Shinagami to stand in the dimly lit corridor, Weltall wondering and Shin just glazed.

"And I hang out with him why?" He asked as he snapped his fingers in font of the other man's face. 

"Whoah....reality. I'm stuck here again?"

"Afraid so."

"And I was just really getting to like all that polka music."

The journey continued with Shin's newly repaired black trenchcoat trailing out behind him rather majestically, if one could see a man in all black with long shaggy hair majestic in anyway except maybe the majestic that Animal Planet seems to regard Steve Irwin. That kind. Yeah. The two of them came to a stop down a dead end hallway, the limestone blocks that made up the corridor lit by two single torches on either side of a giant wooden door with a plaque attached to it. It read:

Lord Deathscythe

Dark Lord of the Fics

"Why don't I have a neat title like that?" Shin asked as he approached it. Weltall shrugged.

"Isn't 'God of Death' neat enough?"

Shin grimaced. "That was placed on me as a curse, you can't use it against me." he knocked. "Sides, I think I'll make up my OWN title. Like....like...."

"Like?"

"Like!"

Weltall waited. He waited another moment. One more. "Shinagami of Stix - Reaper of Souls!"

"Isn't there a game called 'Soul Reaper'?"

Shin sagged. "No respect at all. nyuck -nyuck- nyuck."

The door opened and a figure loomed out of the darkness from within. Then it loomed right into Weltall's arms.

"Erm?" Then he looked at it again. It was the body of a man, with somewhere in the near vicinity of eight knives buried into his back. Shin counted, eight indeed.

"LD? Home?"

"Can't talk, killing." Came the response. Another man was thrown out into the hallway. Then a cracking sound and LD finally emerged. "Hello Shin, Weltall." The black garbed man said from behind his fangs. 

"Should I ask? Because I'm not too sure if I _really_ want to know." Shin stepped lightly over the fallen man as Weltall dropped the knifed man to the floor. 

"Just some combat training, don't want to go off on assignment without a refresher course."

He got an 'ah' from both other parties. He sat at a desk with a computer that was continuously updating this and that. But mostly that. "So, what do you want?"

"You've got a 35 millimeter projector, right?"

LD nodded and steepled his hands. "Yes."

"Can I borrow it?"

The Dark Lord seemed to think about what collateral the younger God of Death could offer up, but in the end decided against it. "No."

"What?"

"Just kidding. Yes, do you have the film?" And Shin felt the urge to facefault.

Exactly thirteen minutes later Shinagami returned with the film, some new bruises and some blood spatters on his scythe.

"What happened to you?" LD asked, wondering why he hadn't been there for the slaughtering.

Shin caught his breath and glared at Weltall. "You _said_ you had disposed of the P-virus subjects!" A plant began to sprout on Shin's forehead. 

"Heh heh....I did...." Weltall Elite smiled inching his way away from the virus infected Shin.

Anger flared from behind Shin's brown eyes. "In my room?!"

"That's where I put it....see, your trash can is better than mine-"

"I got it at freaking Target!"

"Good, now that we've cleared that up we can watch your film."

Shin stuttered about for a second, sighed, and pulled a tube of green liquid from his coat. A needle sprung out and he promptly injected himself with it.

"I thought Blue was the antidote." LD said from his desk.

Weltall shrugged. The T-Virus antidote is green. I think the G-Virus is purple....and there isn't an antidote for the P-Virus."

"D'oh."

LD took charge, not wanting to waste any more time on debating which food coloring water they thought was the antidote. He grinned and noted that his black market scheme _were_ profitable. Take that Epyon. "Settle down children." He pulled the projector from a corner of the room and, with a snap, the lights went out. "Here we go."

From the machine a beam of light shot to a blank gray screen, showing grainy footage of the Children's rooms. It this point in the video Shinji sat on his bed looking at something off screen.

"Psst...hey, what's he lookin at?" Shin nudged Weltall in the ribs.

The offending man shrugged uncomfortably and kept watching. The next seen showed Rei sitting on her bed. Looking at something, no less. It was off the screen. Five minutes of this and the scene changed to Asuka, which perked up all three instantly, who was walking from the hall way into a smaller windowed door. 

"I think it says something on it." Shin said, digging into one of his many pockets and pulling out his glasses. "Nope, still can't read it."

LD squinted at the screen. " I think it says....W....C." And all three of them perked up instantly. Unfortunately for them LD's old projector had a cruel sense of humor, so it caught fire. 

"Hey, fire." LD said, eyes shifting from the screen to the rapidly engulfing-with-flame projector. 

"NO! NONONONONONO!" Shin leapt clear of Weltall and body-checked the machine, smothering out the flames in order to save his research material. He pulled the roll of film from the machines innards and blew the dust off it. Then he realized that the dust, WAS the film, disintegrating into a billion different pieces. Nuts.

"Well, that was a waste." Weltall said from his seat, bag of popcorn in hand.

LD stood over Shin, who was desperately trying to salvage a three inch long fragment of film that showed frame after frame of Asuka walking down the hall, it too disintegrated. "You broke my projector. You know how much they cost?"

"Didn't you get that from the garage sale last Tuesday?" Weltall asked before munching down some more buttered corn that had been mysteriously popped.

"That's not the point. You will suffer for this." Shin stood up to his full height, staring eye-to...chin with the Dark Lord. Nuts.

"Okay, okay...I'm sorry." the look LD shot him proved this to be too little, too late.

Three days later, a cage fell from the sky and landed non-too gracefully on a tour bus from fanfiction.net. No one was killed, but eighteen Chain of Command fans were seriously injured. But that's besides the point. Inside the cage Shin's eyes fluttered open for the second time. In three days. The door of the steel enclosure was very much annihilated, so in that respect Shinagami could now stand up straight. 

"Man...LD knows how to throw a chair...." he sat up and looked around. He recalled his punishment was to be locked into a cage and dropped from a C-130 into a Random part of the world. And of all the places he ended up here. Right outside the main lobby of FFN Central Headquarters. Not that Shin didn't like FFN, in fact, he almost liked it a lot. But still, that was the LAST place he wanted to be right then. In some regard he DID have a few bone to pick with the moderators, so he hefted his scythe and stepped off the ruined bus. Only to be attacked by zombies.

End Omake Force Alpha.

Next up: Omake Force Beta: Gathering of legends and all that nice and noble stuff.

Author's Drivel

Ever notice how my humoury things seem to go off on a leg of their own? I do. And I like it that way. After the next few chapters are up I'll post Omake Force Beta, but till then you have to suffer through another couple Observers. Quit yer griping! Think of this as a pit stop on a little road trip, or one of those intermission type objects that opera fans seem to anticipate so very much. Feedback welcome at mathis478@hotmail.com


	5. Day in, day out

Observers: A Study of the beings known as Children

Chapter four: Day in , day out.

***

60:00:00 Subjects converse in hushed tones. 

It has been roughly seventeen hours since the last unknown was introduced, and with little more than twelve hours remaining for the Children I have decided to initiate the single remaining unknown variable. Observations will now be made every three hours exactly. The verbal violence shown by the Second should interact with the new variable most interestingly.

Rei had become familiar with her new surroundings and was about as comfortable in them as she was anywhere else. What made her question not only herself, but the manner in which she carried herself was the Third Child attempting to get her and the Second Child to interact more efficiently. She could have easily explained to Ikari that it was rather futile, seeing as Rei embodied the very thing Asuka had seen as a symbol of her mother's abandonment. Yet, she did not. This was for two reasons, one being she did not know if Ikari knew about the Second's mother or if he was even cleared to know such information if the event ever occurred. Secondly Rei was interested in the reasons Ikari gave her as to why she should be more open to Asuka. Rei categorized each reason and deduced a simple logical explanation of how it would be nearly impossible, and then she listened more to the Third try to scrape around the fact that he cared for the Second a great deal and was hurt when they did not get along. This was all a matter of logic, Rei had long ago decided, and was easy enough to figure out when you had the right combinations. Ikari was stuck in a bind, so to speak, caring for both girls, but wishing something more from one than the other. It was no secret he wished more from Soryou, and Rei had long ago decided she did not much care. It must be noted that she _did _care for Shinji, but not of the still embryonic relationship that might one day be born. It was of no matter, Ikari would be safe and she could still pilot Eva and fulfill her purpose whether or not the Second and the Third were in 'love'

"... And also, if you think about it you and Asuka would, well, learn a lot from each other." The Third was saying. Rei could not deny that fact, as the Second was more learned of society than herself, but doubted she had anything to teach the other girl beyond how to pilot her Eva and complete her missions. It was a doomed friendship. And still she did not interject or point out the flaws in his ideas.

"I...just would like it if you gave it a try." Gave it a try; Ikari had said that to her once before, to try and smile. She did smile, she smiled like she did when in the presence of the Commander. She thought of her logic then. _Try smiling?_ She thought. _What for? _Then she began to understand; she smiled when with Commander Ikari because she was near him. _Is that...happiness?_ Was she happy when around he Commander? Apparently so if she smiled when he was near. So she was...happy when the Third was near. That was true. However, there was no point to being friends with Soryou. She had said once a while back that she would if ordered to, and thus far she had not been, so she was not. But now Ikari was asking her, and while not an order, it was a request from someone who made her happy. _Is this called commitment? _No, she knew commitment. Commitment was how she has spent her lifetime learning to pilot Eva and understand one small part of her that longed to be joined with its Mother. What she was experiencing was not an emotion she could describe, it was an ethereal feeling almost of repayment. He made her happy so she did as he requested.

"I will try."

The Third's eyes opened wide. "Really? You will Ayanami?" Rei had already answered his appeal to be...friends (a term she would not herself use on the relationship she was being asked to form) with Soryou, and did not make a move to answer again. Her eyes settled on the lightly sleeping form of the Second, noting the fact that when she slept she often softly cried out. Her eyes tracked across the wall, where the line from Shinji's Tokyo-3 lake formed a bay and noticed that there in the corner of the north and east wall was a small box. It lay in the boundaries declared restricted to her by the Second. It was roughly fourteen by ten inches across and was a pale blue color. On its topmost surface was what seemed like a photograph of a piece of cardboard with even squares etched across its surface. Small white stones decorated the squares in rows. Three people on the left side seemed to be smiling with great joy, for what reason Rei could not discern. And since it was in the restricted area, Rei noted the size, shape, time of occurrence and turned her attention toward something else. Something far beyond the walls of their cell, and about 16,000,000 miles away far outside the orbit of the Earth.

Asuka woke once more, and noted with some annoyance that the Other Two (as she now referred to them as) were wide awake. She yawned and stood, her left ankle immediately popping, making her stumble for a second and regain her balance by supporting her weight on the east wall. While looking down at the offending ankle and waiting for the spots in her eyes and the dizziness in her head to go away she saw a box. It was a very familiar box, and she had remembered unwrapping at least three of them that were identical at different birthday parties. It was a game, a board game. Scrabble.

"The hell?" She took a cautious step forward and picked the strange game up. Shinji, who noticed her awakening watched with curiosity as Asuka turned the box over and over in her hands.

"What is it, Asuka?"

Asuka grimaced. "What does it look like, stupid? It's a game of scrabble." Shinji raised an eyebrow and joined her in the northeast corner.

"It is." He looked at the ceiling and the joints of the wall and floor, still no hole, hatchway, sliding mechanism, nothing.

"Of course, you think it was a helicopter or something?" Shinji shrugged and looked back over to Rei, who was still in her original position, staring off into space.

"Well, come on, let's play." Shinji faced Asuka again. 

"What?"

She turned her nose up at him. "If you aren't to afraid of me beating you miserably."

"I am not!" He sat. "Come on, Ayanami, want to play?" He looked over his shoulder.

As if wakened from a trance Rei looked at him in question. "What would be the point?"

"I don't know...I guess it could expand your vocabulary some." He shrugged and then mouthed 'friends.' Rei understood what he said, she just did not see how playing a board game would help solve the differences between the two girls. "It'll be fun."

"Fun?" Rei understood that fun was what people had when they activities they found pleasurable. She did not see how laying letters onto a board was going to be pleasurable. However, Ikari would be playing also, and she was happy when she was near him. That said Rei must have found being with the Third pleasurable, thus, fun.

"Fine." She stood and moved to sit on the third side of the board that Asuka had been busy setting up. The side that was still in her parameters of movement.

"Okay, I'll go first, Shinji second and Rei can go third." She pulled an assortment of random letter-blocks and set them on her stand.

"Shouldn't we go in order? Rei First, you Second, me Third?" Shinji asked as he put his own letters on his stand.

"That would be stupid. We're going counter clockwise. Me, you, her." The look on her face made it clear she would not have it any other way.

"Okay, okay...." He made some quick adjustments to his letters and looked up. "Go."

"I'm going, give me a second." Asuka pulled seven letters from her stash and set them on the board. 

Stymied, they read.

"How much did you score with that one?" Shinji looked over the rules pamphlet.

Asuka smiled. "It was on a triple score word box, and I used three vowels, so I get 99. Your turn."

"Ah, okay." Shinji selected nine words and set them carefully on the board. His said 'confluent'.

Rei studied her letters. She had already discovered she could make three words with the letters she currently had- J, A, B, R, N, U, L, O- and two other words using Shinji and Asuka's pieces. She chose which would give her the maximum amount of points and placed them on the board. She picked Asuka's 'stymied' and turned it into her own 'nebula' for a score of 85. 

***

60:30:00 Subjects play provided board game.

I was almost surprised to see subject 2B accept the invitation to play the game. From what I have observed thus far, it would seem she would decline, as she almost did. I am speculating that the Third Child is a strong influence on her thinking and growing into a human being.

"Ready." Shinji set his letters across the 'a' in the last word played by Asuka. In watching the two he had come to the conclusion that both possessed an amazingly expanse vocabulary, and put it to good use. He, on the other hand, was forced into using everyday words and a few scientific terms he'd remembered from school. The important thing, however, was that all three of them were sitting in close proximity and there was not a word of 'doll' or other such insults thrown. He dared not speak of the peace for fear that it might shatter if he thought about it too much, much less mentioned it.

"I'll use your 'r' and make...cormophyte." Asuka told Rei as she added her points. 

"Usage." Shinji said as he used three of his own letters and two from Asuka's last word.

Rei looked over the board, noting the most profitable squares to play, and made her move.

"Pyrrihic." She said, using Shinji's own 'y'. Asuka laughed, she'd never heard of the word before, but did not doubt its existence, what made her laugh was she could use the 'h' and make-

"Dystrophy." 

"Radioactive."

"Meliorism"

"Podiatry."

"Polar."

"Fluvial."

The game came to a close, Asuka in the lead, Rei second, and Shinji trailing by over twenty points. 

"Well that was a waste of forty-five good minutes." Asuka said and slide the box across the room after Shinji had placed all the pieces back inside. It hit the wall and sat. Shinji followed its trail and sighed. When he looked back Asuka had a bowl of ramen in her hands and was about to slurp some down when Shinji tapped her on the shoulder.

"There's three of us, remember? We have to ration it." Asuka glared at him, her eyes suggesting she might be hurt and handed the bowl over.

"Whatever, it's not like there's any reason to."

"What do you mean by that, Asuka?" Shinji pulled out a portion of the noodles for himself and gave the bowl to Rei, who did likewise.

"We're never getting out of here, they're going to keep us locked up forever and you know it." She leaned against the wall and shuddered a bit. "Just keep us locked up until we crack."

"Come on, Asuka. They'll let us out, I mean, why would they just keep us locked in here with all these new things popping up out of nowhere?"

"I told you, Shinji. People are weird. They'll probably keep giving us- the monkeys- toys to keep them entertained and then forget about us."

"But...but then why..." Shinji's mouth opened and closed, working on some question he knew no one could answer.

"You look surprised, like you really thought we'd just be in and out." She sank to the ground and hugged her knees. He looked at her angry blue eyes and blinked rapidly, trying to digest what she was trying to get at.

"But...."

"I figured it out a while back, Shinji. This is just someone's sick idea of entertainment. Soon it will get old and no more ramen for the Children." Scorn filled her voice. "And all the while little Shinji thought it was all a big trick his daddy made up." Her mocking laughter filled the tinny cell. "You figured it out, didn't you Wondergirl? I know you did, I can see it."

"I do not understand what you mean."

"Bullshit. You know as well as I do we're going to die down here."

Rei had already accepted that as an option, after all, there was not much she could do. She did not hope for a door to open or any other savior, because she barely grasped what hope really was. No, she only waited.

"It is a possibility."

"Of course it is! And we will. We'll rot away and no one will care, or even notice, for that matter."

The three of them lapsed into silence while they thought about what that meant. Shinji had long ago retreated to his corner and both girls where in their own respective sides of the cell, each thinking completely different thoughts.

***

61:00:00 Subjects sit in silence. Life signs indicate subject 1A and 2A are sleeping.

With the sudden prophecy by the Second I am concerned to think that the isolation and variables have taken their toll on the Children's minds. Deterioration was inevitable with the nature of the experiment, yet this is premature. I assume it is due to the Children's stressful upbringings that have sped up the rate of decline.

Shinji had thought he'd covered all points of his life he wished to reflect on. He had thought this until wakening and finding himself in a rather embarrassing situation. As his mind raced to think of baseball scores and other distractions he'd realized his love life left much to be desired, if he could even say he _had_ a love life. Three more minutes later and he'd calmed enough to think this path of thought out completely. It was true he was only fourteen, but he'd heard stories of children his age already losing their virginity. He cursed himself, premarital sex was something he'd been taught early on was wrong. He could not say he didn't have the chance, because just before moving to Tokyo-3 he'd known a girl by the name of Ryoko. She'd been pretty, a nice round face and dark hair. The only vice that the other boys found in her was she did not sport the shapely figure of the other girls in her class. Shinji never thought of her as fat, of even marginally overweight, but to others and herself she was a cow. The entire semester Shinji was friends with Ryoko, and even going so far as to visit her house and meet her parents. Despite what Asuka said, Shinji was not dense as lead, and he was well aware of the affection the girl displayed towards him. Two days before he left she had approached him, and asked to study at her house that night. He'd not even answered, pretending his class' late bell made him hurry off. 

Shinji could not say if he regretted it or not, he did not want to have sex with a girl whom he did not love, but what kind of person might he be now if he had? Would Asuka still call him a wuss? Would his father still think of him as a tool? Would he blush madly every time Misato teased him about Asuka? He didn't know for sure, but he did know he'd be a rotten human being if he had done it. 

"At least," He said, looking at Asuka. "we won't have to pilot the Eva any longer." 

Asuka stirred in her sleep, rolling from her left side to her right, and reaching out with her arm for something. If it was for something to hold onto, or maybe just to stretch it, Shinji didn't know. But he did reach out with his own hand and lightly grasp hers. "And at least," He thought sadly to himself, "We're all together."

From the opposite corner of the room Ayanami watched on in what some might call her form of fascination. From where she sat Ikari had apparently come to accept that he might die in the cell just as she had, except, Ikari seemed somehow more fulfilled and less hollow than herself.

Continued....


	6. Labryinth

Observers: A study of the beings known as Children.

Chapter 5: Labyrinth

***

61:30:00 Subjects sleep. North route open. 

The wall that the Second has thus far occupied is now open, and I await the awakening of the Children. I cannot even imagine what kind of discoveries both the Children and myself will find once they leave the cell.

***

Asuka's left eye reported to her brain that it was bright. He brain noted this and sent a message to her left eye to close and it would no longer be light. Her pupil lazily rolled to the corner of her eye, sweeping over the offending bright walls and observed a large expanse of darkness. Her eye closed. Ten seconds later both snapped open again and she sat straight up, gawking at where her wall used to be.

"The hell?" Her cry woke Rei, who's eyes opened and shifted from the floor to Asuka, to the gap in the wall. Shinji's mouth opened slightly to tell Asuka to be quiet, but his tongue lolled out and began drooling.

"It's a way out!" Asuka shouted wildly. She crossed the room and roughly nudged Shinji with her foot. "Wake up, idiot! It's a way out!" Shinji made a slurping noise and blinked quickly. 

"What are you yelling about?" He looked to where she was madly pointing. "Huh? A way out!" He jumped up and took Asuka's hands. "We can leave! We're not going to die!" Asuka pulled her hands away.

"Of course not. Come on, let's get out of here." Rei stood and followed as Asuka and Shinji approached the breach slowly.

The darkness that emanated from the tunnel gradually turned to just dimmer obscured light as the Children's eye's adjusted after being used to roughly sixty hours of harsh florescent lighting. They could easily make out the hallway that led a good thirty feet until it suddenly stopped. On the right wall were two doors, a third on the left.

"It says Third Children." Shinji stated, looking curiously at the door which was obviously meant for him. "Should we go in?"

"I don't know, this one says Second Children, and that one over there says First Children." Asuka put her hands on her hips and thought. Whoever was keeping this sick trick going wanted them to split up and go into separate rooms. "They may want us to be alienated from each other." She looked at Shinji.

"Well, we could go into this one altogether and then the other two, or we can each go in our own." He offered a shrug.

Rei Ayanami stood and listened to the other two Children debate over what course of action was going to be taken. A tiny part in the back of her mind noted the fact that, had she been on her own, she wouldn't have delayed this long and already have gone through her appropriate door. She looked at the ground, wondering if she should voice her own opinion or just go along with what the Second and Third thought.

"Rei, I said what do you think?"

"I don't think she's listening, Shinji."

The First's head rose to look at Shinji, a worried expression worn on his face. "What...do I think?"

"That was the question, now that it's been repeated for the third time let's get onto answering it." Rei ignored the remark from the Second. "I think... that we should go into our separate doorways."

"Well, if we do that we'll need a way to signal the others if we run into trouble-"

Asuka broke in. "This isn't some lame detective anime, Shinji. I can handle myself, I would think Wondergirl can hold her own, and you're a boy. I don't see a problem."

Shinji stuttered about for a moment and organized his thoughts. "You were the one bent on convincing us we'd die. And you were certain the food was poisoned. If anything I'd think you'd want to have a way to tell Ayanami or me if you ran into trouble or a way out." He frowned.

"Fine," She said and turned, waving her hand absently. "go and make your stupid little plan."

Shinji shot a glare at Asuka's back and turned to Rei. "Uh. Yeah. How about if I knock twice on the wall I'm in trouble, and knock three times I found an exit." At this Asuka made a rude exasperated sigh.

"And if we are out of earshot?" Shinji blinked at Rei's question.

"Uh, well....Let's hope we're not...I guess." Still facing the other direction Asuka gave a loud snort to show how she felt about the plan.

"Come on, and here I thought you had at least _some_ common sense. What can you use to reach someone if you can't hear their voice?" Two stares. "Uhg...vibrations. You can feel the vibration from an explosion even if you can't hear it." Two stares. "If you don't get a response from knocking try pounding the hell out of the wall, floor, your head, whatever."

"That sounds good." Shinji said, moving to 'his' door. "Okay..." He breathed in.

Asuka grimaced and flung the door knob to her own door open and stepped inside. Rei slowly turned the handle of the door marked with her designation number and she soon disappeared from sight. A second later both doors creaked shut, leaving Shinji alone in the corridor. He took one last look at the cell that had been his temporary home for so many long hours and entered his door into-

Another hallway, twenty feet in length. 

A dead end. Shinji sighed, wondering if this was some sort of metaphor for his life. He turned and re-opened the door and stepped back into hallway just as he heard a deep resonating thud. It had come from Asuka's door. Shinji knew not what was so horrible that Asuka had to call for help only three minutes into her journey, but he knew he had to find her. He threw open her door and raced into utter darkness.

Asuka rubbed her forehead. It had been so dark in her room she had to walk at nearly baby pace to avoid running into anything. She had run her hand along the wall next to her as she walked, but in a matter of seconds it opened into a full chamber. She could tell she was in an alcove because the air pressure had changed dramatically, so much that she didn't notice the odd feeling she had just before she had run into a wall erected at a ninety degree angle. The crash had rung out through her room, no doubt due to the wall being hollow. She filed that note away for the time being and focused on mapping her way around. The ninety degree turn was an adjoining hallway that led to a larger, echoing cavern. If there was anything in the new room - or the old one, for that matter - Asuka did not know, but she held her hand to the wall and traveled slowly until she reached another ninety degree turn. She followed this on only to have it turn left again. She heard a hiss and the harsh yellow light assaulted her. Her hands flew to shield her eyes from the offending intruder, and her vision blurred as tears formed at the corners of her eyes. 

"The hell?" She knew full well she wasn't normally _this_ sensitive to light. With one eye squeezed shut and the other pointed at the floor she stumbled to the wall and sank down. She managed to open both eyes after she cupped both hands over them, still being able to see cracks of light between her fingers.

Shinji was on the ground. The blow he'd sustained from sprinting into a wall was enough to put him on the ground, and make a large crater in the wall, which he assumed was hollow drywall. He pushed himself up and felt his way along the wall until what he thought was a door blocked his way.

"Great," He muttered, the sound echoing out and reverberating through him. "Now what?" He'd met two dead ends since leaving his cell, and for all he knew Asuka could still be in danger. 

__

Maybe I should go find Ayanami and figure something out with her. He thought, turning back. He drug his hand along the opposite wall as he backtracked to where he figured the door was. All at once his wall gave out into an open space, and then the wall rose up again. It was another corridor, Shinji realized. He turned down the hall and forged ahead.

Rei Ayanami stood just beyond the doorway that she had first entered. The dimly lit walkway she was facing branched off into two other directions. She had long ago figured out what she and the other Children were in, and refused to be used in such a way. So she stood. 

***

62:00:00 Children have entered labyrinth.

The Second and Third Children have already begun to sort their way through the maze, but the First seems to be remaining prone. I can only speculate that she is associating her denial of being 'a doll' with being 'forced' to run a maze. Some motivation is in order.

***

A hiss brought Rei's attention to behind her, where a metal grate panel had slid closed, cutting her five foot hallway into a three foot hallway. She watched calmly as another panel reduced the three feet to two. She took a step forward as a third panel turned the remaining two feet into one foot. Her eyes narrowed, she wasn't going to be _herded_ through any maze, Commander's wishes or not. If she had to follow a course through the labyrinth then she would plot her own course. She stepped through the second branch as a panel was about to close down on it, and force her to take the first path. What she saw was a long corridor, brightly lit with three adjoining hallways. Crouched in the corner near the second hallway was the Second Child, trying to squint past the light. Rei deduced the light had affected the Second's vision. She turned and followed the first hallway into a twisting course of ninety degree angles and side-paths. An interval appeared and Rei decided to take the left, and made a note to explore the right when she was done down this hallway. Two ninety degree angles later she came to and 'L' shaped intersection. She took the left, once more making a note to explore the right. Two more twists later she came to another 'L' intersection. She looked back down the right interval and frowned. Just a slight frown, but it was visual evidence that she was annoyed. She had walked down the same hallway twice. She back tracked to the first ninety degree turn she'd made since the Bright Hallway. There was a smaller path just inside the entrance to the Twisting Hallway. She took it.

Shinji's side corridor had opened into a larger hallway, red light flickering around on what Shinji guessed was limestone walls. As he walked he noted that slots in the roof held inverted torches, which Shinji didn't even try to surmise stayed lit upside down. He stayed close to the wall, in case some other pathway presented itself, but a twinge of reflecting light brought Shinji into the center of the corridor. It was a ceramic bowl and a drinking glass. One filed with flakes of crisp wheat, the other a yellowy liquid. Cereal and orange juice, he smiled. _Real food, at last!_ He took the bowl and held it close to his face, finding the source of the glittering to be a metal spoon. He took it and gulped down some of the flakes, which, to him, tasted as if a thousand chefs had all contributed the most rare secrets to its simple ingredients. The juice went down next, giving his taste buds a little dance. The acidy citrus tingled his throat as it sloshed its way down. He pocketed the spoon and set the bowl and glass aside, so the others would not trip on it if they so chose to follow that same path. With a renewed sense of liveliness, Shinji looked forward and proceeded , undaunted by the unknown.

Her eyes had finally accepted the overwhelming light. For thins Asuka thanked God, Allah, whatever Shinto gods that the people on early morning Channel Two kept ranting about and looked about her. There were three routes open, one which she had entered from, one that looked less bright, but lit nonetheless, and the last had a linked metal gate covering the opening. The second one it was, and Asuka set off down it, making an immediate left turn. She had made three more turns when a clattering behind caused her to freeze. She spun around and saw a metal army cantine settling onto the linoleum floor. She picked it up to discover it was full. A few sniffs and Asuka discerned it was full of tea. English tea, the very kind her father would make her for an afternoon snack. She frowned at the flask and slung its strap over her shoulder. 

***

62:30:00 Children are moving about.

I am most surprised with the First, I would not have expected to see her take an alternate path than one that was so blatantly obvious. The blockades would have directed her away from the Second, but instead she chose to follow a similar course as subject 2A. While there was no trail of the Second's to follow, I am tempted to assume that all Level 4 candidates have a similar thought pattern.

***

Shinji saw a staircase. It led down to a mutedly lit turn, which he assumed was the staircase turning and then continuing downward. Muted cries of agony floated up to him.. The Third Children steeled himself and began to step down each step one at a time.

_I mustn't run away......._

Asuka saw a cavern that reminded her instantly of Gothic cathedral's main hall. It was giant, with a vaulted ceiling, flying buttresses, and stained glass. Glass. That meant there had to be light to make the stained glass stand out, and that was an escape route if Asuka ever saw one. She stepped lightly into the Hall, glanced at the walls, and let out a horrified gasp.

Rei saw a room. Bare save for the ice box, the small cot and the pitcher of water. It was a room very much like the one she occupied, this was painfully obvious, but there was something different. It was a recessed panel that had not been previously there. She slid it open. A closet. She stepped inside.

Continued.....


End file.
